(Post)Moderne Raumkonzepte und die Erforschung des Altertums (original) (raw)

Since the 1980s, due to globalization, postcolonialism and other circumstances many disciplines in the humanities and social sciences have become more attentive to the spatial dimension of human lives. This observation is used as a starting point to rethink about the relationship between history and geography by a critical view on the postmodern spatial turn, its context of origin and its central ideas. Subsequently, the use of space and the positioning in relation to the spatial turn of the German history studies and geographies is discussed. A possible way out of some of the identified contradictory positions is seen in analyzing the interrelation of knowledge and space. Based on research projects of the Berlin Excellence Cluster Topoi the three currently common concepts for the analysis of spatial practices and knowledge – 1) the production of space as material environment, 2) space as differentiation, 3) space as social spatiality – are exemplified for ancient studies. The summary points out the possibilities and conditions for new interdisciplinary collaboration of history and geography.